The book, which is illustrated by Tim Probert, is told in rhyming couplets through the eyes of a boy on a visit to the city with his family. It lets readers experience the sights and the smells—both sweet and sour—of nineteen different neighborhoods in New York City.

Jones, who works as a concierge at a hotel located in Times Square, is self-publishing her book with funding raised on Kickstarter (she got three hundred and seventeen backers!), an approach she took after the publishing industry turned up its nose at the idea. But as she told the Guardian, a book that only included good smells couldn’t rightfully call itself a book about New York. “As much as we wish this city only smelled like cinnamon and cocoa … it doesn’t.”

If you’re planning on reading Chad Harbach’s “The Art of Fielding” along with our book club this month, there are a few (gossipy) things you should know: the novel has been greatly anticipated, in part because it was rumored to be very good; in part because of the sweet advance Harbach got from Little, Brown ($665,000); and in part because Harbach has literary friends who don’t mind mythologizing him. Keith Gessen, who met Harbach in college and went on to work on n+1 with him (and who now contributes to The New Yorker), has just published an e-book, “How a Book is Born: The Making of the Art of Fielding,” expanded from an article in the October 2011 issue of Vanity Fair . It’s a great account of the publishing industry and also of how awful the writing life can be (yes, poverty comes with the territory)—until it isn’t.